Parliamentary Committee Notes: Funding to Combat Foreign Interference
Proposed Response
- Foreign interference is a dynamic threat that includes any effort by foreign states, and/or their proxies, to undermine Canada’s national interests, economic prosperity and values, or threaten public safety and the exercise of fundamental democratic rights and freedoms.
- This funding will support criminal investigations, increase (to a small extent) human resources to conduct operational and tactical intelligence analysis, and acquire, maintain, and replace some of the most critical tools and technologies required for those investigations and support activities.
Financial Implications
- The RCMP is receiving $16.2 million ($14.0 million in voted authorities and $2.2 million in statutory authorities) in 2024-25 to support foreign interference-related criminal investigations.
Background
The Government of Canada announced the provision of $62.4M under Budget 2023 to assist Public Safety (PS) ($13.5M) and the RCMP ($48.9M) in protecting Canadians from foreign interference (FI)-related threat activity. As per Budget 2023, these resources would support the establishment of a National Counter-Foreign Interference Office at PS, and empower the RCMP to protect Canadians from harassment and intimidation, increase its investigative capacity, and more proactively engage with communities at greater risk of being targeted.
These investments are a first step toward making Canada, including its communities and institutions, safer and more resilient to the threat posed by FI, as they will:
- Increase engagement and collaboration between the RCMP and targeted communities, enhancing the reporting of FI-related criminal activities, as well as the RCMP’s ability to detect and identify these threats;
- Bring the RCMP closer to aligning with law enforcement partners and key allies; and
- Strengthen the RCMP’s capacity to investigate, counter and disrupt FI-related criminality and the criminal actors that commit them.
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